ProgPoW author Kristy-Leigh Minehan has resigned as Chief Technical Officer of Core Scientific to focus on pushing ProgPow. Minehan made the decision in order to remove any potential conflicts and pilot the progress of Ethereum‘s improvement proposal.
Programmatic Proof-of-Work (ProgPoW) is a GPU-tuned extension of Ethash that minimizes the efficiency gap available to fixed-function hardware.
What triggered Minehan’s resignation from Core Scientific?
Last week Minehan was uninvited from the Ethereum Classic Summit. This was due to Core Scientific’s connections with self-declared Satoshi Nakamoto Craig Wright and Calvin Ayre.
Minehan broke the news of her resignation in a Twitter post on September 25. Minehan claimed that ProgPoW was a highly significant factor in Ethereum’s development. ProgPoW would play a critical role in Ethereum’s transition to Ethereum 2.0. Therefore, Minehan “felt” it essential to remove any potential conflicts or conflicting associations beforehand.
ProgPoW is developed to introduce a fair-play system on the Ethereum network. The algorithm would negate performance differences between different hardware, like the ASICs, GPUs, etc. This would allow Ethereum to become more decentralized by demolishing the monopoly of large-scale miners. Hence, lining in with the vision of its whitepaper.
Regardless, some people believe that the ProgPoW algorithm may cause an unnecessary split in the community.
Ulterior motives?
Although some people cite her decision as a selfless act for the Ethereum community, people still question her motives behind the resignation. Why did she feel the need to push the algorithm’s development so hard? Was she worried about harming Ethereum’s value? Maybe she wanted distance from the toxicity of Bitcoin SV, but who knows? Regardless, why would people consider that she had ulterior motives is also
